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Beyoncé in the World
Making Meaning with Queen Bey in Troubled Times
Edited Christina Baade , Kristin A. McGee
Series: Music / Culture
Sales Date: 2021-06-08
Essays investigate Beyoncé's global impact
Honorable Mention for Outstanding Edited Collection of Essays in Ethnomusicology for the 2023 Ellen Koskoff Edited Volume Prize by the Society for Ethnomusicology, 2023
From Destiny's Child to Lemonade, Homecoming, and The Gift, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has redefined global stardom, feminism, Black representation, and celebrity activism. This book brings together new work from sixteen international scholars to explore Beyonce's impact as an artist and public figure from the perspectives of critical race studies, gender and women's studies, queer and cultural studies, music, and fan studies. The authors explore Beyoncé's musical persona as one that builds upon the lineages of Black female cool, Black southern culture, and Black feminist cultural production. They explore Beyoncé's reception within and beyond North America, including how a range of performers—from YouTube gospel singers to Brazilian pop artists have drawn inspiration from her performances and image. The authors show how Beyoncé's music is a source of healing and kinship for many fans, particularly Black women and queer communities of color. Combining cutting edge research, vivid examples, and accessible writing, this collection provides multiple lenses onto the significance of Beyoncé in the United States and around the world.
Acknowledgments • Contributor Biographies • Preface, Janell Hobson • Introduction, "Beyoncé Studies," Christina Baade, Marquita Smith, Kristin McGee • I. "Diva": Black Feminist Genealogies • Chapter 1. "'I Came to Slay': The Knowles Sisters, Black Feminism, and the Lineage of Black Female Cool," H. Zahra Caldwell • Chapter 2. "From Colorism to Conjurings: Tracing the Dust in Beyoncé's Lemonade," Cienna Davis • II. "Formation": A Southern Turn • Chapter 3. "Beyoncé's South and a 'Formation' Nation," Riché Richardson • Chapter 4. "Merging Past and Present in Lemonade's Black Feminist Utopia," J. Brendan Shaw • III. "XO": Faith and Fandom • Chapter 5. "At the Digital Cross(roads) with Beyoncé: Gospel Covers that Remix the Risqué into the Religious," Birgitta Johnson • Chapter 6. "'She made me understand': How Lemonade Raised the Intersectional Consciousness of Beyoncé's International Fans," Rebecca J. Sheehan • IV. "World Wide Woman": Beyoncé's Reception Beyond the United States • Chapter 7. "The 'Performative Negotiations' of Beyoncé in Brazilian Bodies and the Construction of the "Pop Diva" in Ludmilla's Funk Carioca and Gaby Amarantos's Tecnobrega," Simone Pereira de Sá and Thiago Soares • Chapter 8. "A Critical Analysis of 'White Ignorance' within Beyoncé's Online Reception in the Spanish Context," Elena Herrera Quintana • V. "Hold Up": Performing Femme Affinity and Dissent • Chapter 9. "Six-inch Heels and Queer Black Femmes: Beyoncé and Black Trans Women," Jared Mackley-Crump and Kirsten Zemke • Chapter 10. "From 'Say My Name' to 'Texas Bamma': Transgressive Topoi, Oppositional Optics, and Sonic Subversion in Beyoncé's 'Formation,'" Byron Craig and Stephen Rahko • VI. "Freedom": Sounding Protest, Hearing Politics • Chapter 11. "The Deformed Musical Forms of Beyoncé's Celebrity Activism," Annelot Prins and Taylor Myers •Chapter 12. "Beyoncé's Black Feminist Critique: Multimodal Intertextuality and Intersectionality in 'Sorry' (Lemonade 2016)," Rebekah Hutten and Lori Burns • VII. "Pray You Catch Me": Healing and Community • Chapter 13. "Beyond 'Becky with the Good Hair': Hair and Beauty in Beyoncé's 'Sorry,'" Kristin Denise Rowe • Chapter 14. "The Livable, Surviving, and Healing Poetics of Lemonade: A Black Feminist Futurity in Action," Mary Senyonga
CHRISTINA BAADE (Ontario, CA) is professor and chair in the Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia at McMaster University and author of Victory through Harmony: the BBC and Popular Music in World War II. KRISTIN MCGEE (Groningen, ND) is associate professor of popular music at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the author of Some Liked it Hot: Jazz Women in Film and Television, 1928–1959.
"The lyrical writing in these essays combines the classic intersections of race, gender and sexuality with themes of international fandom, celebrity activism, and construction of colorism. This collection about Beyoncé illustrates the new Black feminist cool; it is central to any discussion about music and popular culture."
~Naomi André, author of Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement
"This book shows how Beyoncé captures the imagination and speaks to our moment. Beyoncé in the World explores a surprising range of topics that swirl around this era-defining performer, including her relation to global audiences, transgender and cis identities, intersectionality, sounding bodies, costuming and gesture, motherhood, the Southern gothic, neoliberalism, fierceness, selling out, political resistance, black utopias, and social media. Sensitively and expertly curated, this collection brings us closer not only to Beyoncé but to America. This is an inspiring book that should be essential reading."
~Carol Vernallis, Department of Music, Stanford University
"Beyoncé in the World makes the argument for the necessity of Beyoncé studies inside and beyond the academy. With its careful attention to geography, the politics of black celebrity, reception, and the diasporic circulation of Knowles' music, style, and image, this volume offers a model for complex and rigorous cultural studies. Grounded in close readings and careful visual analyses, Beyoncé in the World offers innovative theoretical and methodological tools for the study of black feminist cultural production."
~Jennifer C. Nash, author of Black Feminism Reimagined
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